Bible Commentaries

1 Kings 8:46-53 — able to hear and answer prayer in any land on earth "far or near" (1 Kings 8:46). (2)    Although God's name was associated with the house Solomon built, God's "dwelling place" is emphatically declared to be "in heaven" (1 Kings 8:32; 1 Kings 8:34; 1 Kings 8:36; 1 Kings 8:39; 1 Kings 8:43; 1 Kings 8:45; 1 Kings 8:48) no less than seven times. (3)    Both the ubiquitousness and the omniscience of God appear in the declaration that God knows "the hearts of all

Proverbs 16:17 — "The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: He that keepeth his way preserveth his soul." "The paths of life turn aside from evil; and the ways of righteousness are length of life."The Greek Septuagint (LXX). This promise that length of life is related to righteous living is reiterated in the New Testament (Eph. 6:1:3). There must needs be exceptions, of course, due to many factors that serve as hindrances to the will of God.

Proverbs 29:10 — "The bloodthirsty hate him that is perfect; And as for the upright, they seek his life." The inherent antagonism between good men and bad men, between righteousness and wickedness, between God and sin appears here. "And Cain who was of the evil one slew his brother; and wherefore slew he him? because his works were evil and his brother's righteous" (1 John 3:12). The very goodness of righteous, God-fearing people is more than sufficient grounds for the murderous hatred of them by wicked people.

Ezekiel 16:35-38 — nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood; and I will bring upon thee the blood of wrath and jealousy." ISRAEL'S PUNISHMENT AS AN ADULTERESS These eighteen verses (Ezekiel 16:35-51) speak of the awful punishment of the Chosen People and of its absolute justice in God's sight. The punishment of unfaithful wives in antiquity was as sadistically cruel as anything ever known. It is described in Nahum 3:4-7. (We refer the reader

Hosea 6:7 — accordingly the Revised Standard Version rendered it, "At Adam they transgressed the covenant." Note the three different renditions: (1)    King James Version..."Like men" (2)    American Standard Version..."Like Adam" (3)    Revised Standard Version..."At Adam" The meaning is very similar, no matter how the passage is read. In (1), the meaning is that Israel had broken God's covenant, like all mankind in general. (2) In this, the meaning is that

Zephaniah 3:11 — transgressions" The only way that the shame from transgressions can be removed is through the forgiveness of sins, to which there is undoubtedly a reference in these words, the same being another characteristic of Messianic times, as indicated in Jeremiah 31:31-35. "No one has any reason to be ashamed of the sin from which he was redeemed."Clinton R. Gill, op. cit., p. 228. The placement of these verses (Zephaniah 3:9-20) seems to place their fulfillment after the eternal judgment prophesied in Zephaniah

Matthew 16:19 — their meaning as applied by Christ to Peter in the instance before us. This is not the case. A certain preeminence DID pertain to Peter: (1) He preached the first gospel sermon (Acts 2:14 ff). (2) He unlocked the secret of the Davidic kingdom (Acts 2:31). (3) He unlocked the secret of HOW people enter the kingdom (Acts 2:38). (4) He unlocked the door of faith to the Gentiles (Acts 10:1 ff). (5) He unlocked the door of return for backsliders (Acts 8:13; Acts 8:22). (6) He unlocked the mystery of the

Deuteronomy 30:1-5 — with the ravaging of the Northern kingdom by Assyria, was part of the total picture of Israel's rejection. The reason that this cannot be limited to the Babylonian period is the mention of the scattering of Israel "among all the nations" (Deuteronomy 30:1), among "all the peoples (Deuteronomy 30:3), even "the uttermost parts of heaven" (Deuteronomy 30:4). None of this ever occurred until after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Also. God's promise to "turn thy captivity" (Deuteronomy 30:3) could

Luke 1:33 — And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. The house of Jacob … This patriarch's God-given name was "Israel"; and the Israel over which Christ is now reigning is the true "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16; Matthew 19:28). And of his kingdom there shall be no end … has reference to the perpetual existence of Christ's church throughout the present dispensation of God's grace (Daniel 2:44; Ephesians 3:21).

John 19:39 — — that, perhaps, of a Sanhedrin member — of the fact that Jesus REALLY died, as against Gnostic theories of resuscitation and Jewish accusations of fraud on the part of the disciples." Ibid., p. 205. For more on Nicodemus, see under John 3:1.

John 3:1-2 — literature "for a great man, or a prince."Brooks Foss Westcott, The Gospel according to St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1971), p. 248. For an article on the Pharisees, see my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 3:7. The connection here with events of the preceding chapter is dramatic, Nicodemus clearly being one of those "believers" who did not obey the Lord. The omniscience of Jesus is evident in his answering the question of Nicodemus without his

John 4:37 — saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. This metaphor of the harvest was also used by Paul who extended it to cover the interval between sowing and reaping, thus, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6). In Paul's usage of the metaphor, the gospel preacher is the one who plants, and the one who waters; and he added, "So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."

John 6:47 — Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath eternal life. The preconditions of receiving eternal life are not the subject of this verse. Here Christ was not speaking of them that "believe on" Jesus, but of him that "believeth" the word of God. There is no authority for translating this place, "He that believeth on me hath eternal life." Christ did say that everyone that believeth on him SHOULD HAVE eternal life (John 3:16; John 6:40).

John 8:36 — fleshly descendants; and the truth Christ was presenting is that to be truly Abraham's "spiritual" seed, they would have to be "in Christ," or "in the Son," and thus reckoned a part of the "seed" singular (Galatians 3:16). Until they accepted Christ, their status would continue to be that of the slave and not that of a son of Abraham.

John 8:37 — I know that ye are Abraham's seed; yet ye seek to kill me, because my word hath not free course in you. Jesus freely acknowledged their physical descent from Abraham, but in the same breath pointed out their murderous intentions against Jesus Christ, "the seed" singular (Galatians 3:16) in whom all of the great promises of Abraham were to be realized. What a contradiction in their conduct! Spiritually, those men were the sons of the devil, as Jesus would shortly say.

Acts 5:14 — more added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. Both men and women … From the very first, the church operated upon the principles later enunciated by Paul, "that there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Also, as Root noted: The membership in the apostolic church was of adult believers exclusively; children below the age of responsibility could be neither "believers" nor "men and women." Orin Root, Acts (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard

Romans 4:11 — the faith of Jesus Christ without regard to circumcision or Moses' law. The great promise of salvation was made to Abraham. The blessing to "all the families of the earth" was promised in his seed, that is, "in Christ" (Galatians 3:16). But the Jew had so glorified Moses' law and the rite of circumcision that they unconsciously, but erroneously, identified both with Abraham. Paul was at great pains to explain that law and circumcision had absolutely nothing to do with the great

2 Thessalonians 1:11 — To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and every work of faith, with power; Every work of faith … See under 2 Thessalonians 1:3, above, for discussion of "the work of faith"; the new thought here is that even when Christians do the works required by faith it is actually God who supplies the spiritual energy for them to do it, thus referring all the glory unto God.

Hebrews 3:15 — While it is said, Today if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. While it is said, Today means persevere as long as life lasts, or as long as there is any today. Since this is a quotation from Psalms 95:7, it is possible the author means, "As long as the Bible says Today." The rest of this verse is parallel to Hebrews 3:8 to which the reader is referred for notes.

2 Samuel 12:13-14 — nature of the forgiveness of sins that was available to worthies of the O.T. One of the greatest scholars of our times, John T. Willis, declared that, "Here and elsewhere the O.T. teaches that God forgave sins in O.T. times (Leviticus 4:26; Leviticus 4:31; Leviticus 4:35; Leviticus 5:10; Leviticus 5:13; Leviticus 5:16; Numbers 14:18; Psalms 103:3; Psalms 103:10; Psalms 103:12; Psalms 130:3-4)."John T. Willis, p. 353. Furthermore, it is a fact that the word "forgiveness" is used in all of those references.